


Oh, It's You

by SnappleNinja



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Bad Decisions, But not Enemies, Conversations, Episode: s02e21-22 Twilight of the Apprentice, Hurt No Comfort, Mentioned Darth Vader, Nostalgia, Not Friends, Post-Episode: s02e21-22 Twilight of the Apprentice, Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 7 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:55:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24199324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnappleNinja/pseuds/SnappleNinja
Summary: After emerging from a dangerous fight against Sidious in the World Between Worlds, Ahsoka is placed back on Malachor in the rubble and remains of the Sith Temple that she and Vader had made into a battleground.  Darth Vader is - er, was - Anakin Skywalker, and Ahsoka wants only to meditate and drown in peaceful thoughts.But then, just as she thought she was alone, Maul came along just to pour some salt on the wound.But, also to come to terms with his own failed plans to kill Vader.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	Oh, It's You

**Author's Note:**

> ****Significant spoilers for Clone Wars Season 7****

“ _Not_ to say I told you so...”

Maul found it hard not to even gently smile or reach into Tano’s mind to feel her anger and spite. He still had his back to the former Jedi, as she had hers turned to him, but Maul slightly tilted his head to the side, if only to get a small glimpse at her crouched form out of the corner of his eye. 

Tano refused to give Maul the satisfaction of a reply, but her frustrated breathing was audible enough to serve as its own response. She had sat down on the rubble of the Sith Temple, hugging her knees like she had as a youngling, if only so that she could somehow comfort herself after all that had happened.

“You know,” Maul spoke once more, the tone of his voice feeling like daggers against Ahsoka. “I offered you an _alliance_ once.”

Still, no answer.

“On Mandalore, don’t you remember?” Maul gave a breathy chuckle. “Oh yes, oh yes. After your _clone army_ came to eliminate my forces, and we dueled above the city...” Maul’s voice grew a bit higher – almost softer, as much as his voice would allow – and he almost made it sound like ‘the good old days.’ To be fair, even in the midst of war, both Maul and Ahsoka had felt far less depressed about their situations. 

“We were both so _young_ , were we not?” Maul continued, still having that odd sense of nostalgia tracing his words. “You, much more than I, but...here we both are now, far worse off than we were before.” Maul finally turned around to look straight at Ahsoka, although the most he could see was her back and her rear lekku. “Lady Tano, I am beginning to think that perhaps you were right.” Maul began lightly chuckling again, as he seemed to always do when he thought back on the Clone Wars. “Perhaps, even together, we couldn’t have been able to stop Sidious. _Perhaps,_ we could at least have eliminated Vader, but, _ah!_ What does that matter? That’s not how it happened, despite my efforts to bring him and Kenobi to Mandalore. Hmm, not that you _disappointed_ me, Lady Tano. No, no. You were a... _worthy_ adversary, yes. I don’t believe a single opponent your age could have put up such a fight.”

Maul kept staring at Ahsoka’s back, seeing that she clearly wouldn’t humor him by looking at him face to face, and he sighed. “Very well, Lady Tano. It would seem that you have much to dwell on, yes.” Maul nodded, looking up at the remains of the temple around them. “Vader’s identity surely came as a surprise, despite my own warnings all those years ago, on Mandalore.” Maul noticed Ahsoka slightly shift her arm, and he smiled. “However, I don’t suspect that this was all new reveal. You already had your suspicions before you came to Malachor, didn’t you?”

Maul could sense Ahsoka’s misery welling up.

“You could _always_ feel that potential for darkness in him, couldn’t you?” Maul spoke slowly, watching her subtle reactions intently. “As his apprentice, you _felt_ it, didn’t you? You witnessed his own methods, some of which your Jedi Order most _certainly_ would have frowned upon had they known, and...” Maul sensed Ahsoka further before finding what he was looking for. “And you _adopted_ them, for a time.”

Ahsoka flinched – almost _completely turned_ to face Maul – but kept her face hidden.

“Ahhh, _yes,_ yes!” Maul chuckled a bit louder – a bit more enthusiastically – this time. “From our duel on Mandalore, I learned that he taught you well, but as for the perceptions of the Force...” Maul paused and clicked his tongue, grinning widely and wrinkling the corners of his eyelids. “As for _that_ , I can sense that they began to plant themselves in you, Lady Tano. Perhaps _that_ is why you left your Order so quickly after they accused you, hmm? Because you were _afraid_ of Skywalker.”

“I _never_ feared him!” Ahsoka lashed out unexpectedly, standing to her feet quickly. Her hands had floated down to rest on her lightsabers clipped to her belt, but she stopped herself. Even after all of this, Maul was surprised with how much utter _pain_ he found in her expression. In her features. All over her face. Ahsoka’s eyes looked tired and strained. Her lips looked cracked from drying. If it was even possible, Maul could have sworn her noticed the blue of her eyes appear more faded than he remembered.

“Anakin,” Ahsoka breathed, sounding as if it truly hurt herself to say the name, “was the only one who stood by me. He was the only one who truly cared, and who would have been willing to welcome me back with open arms if I had made my decision after the war. _Vader,_ ” Ahsoka spat, this name filling her with a completely different kind of pain, “is something terrible and awful. He may have once been my friend, but now he is nothing more than Sidious’ puppet.”

“As I attempted to _reveal_ to you, Lady Tano,” Maul pointed out. 

There was a long silence between the two before Ahsoka decided to correct the man again. “My master was never a perfect Jedi – _far_ from that – but he was a good man. He did _not_ pave the way for me to become a _dark side-r_ or whatever you want to assume.”

“Oh, no,” Maul shook his head. “No, no. Tapping into the dark side, even in a large effect, doesn’t automatically deem one person as an agent of the _Dark Side_ or even a Sith. _This,_ ” Maul began, holding up his hand as he thought back on previous events, “is what I attempted to apply to my...new apprentice.”

Ahsoka looked at Maul with a confused glare before her eyes slightly widened and she curled her mouth into a frown. “You can’t take Ezra.”

“Oh?” Maul folded his arms. “I believe, with his former master - that _Jedi Knight_ he came with – out of use, Ezra most _certainly_ needs a replacement.”

Ahsoka let her eyes fall as she thought on what she had just witnessed inside the World Between Worlds, when she had come to face an older, more matured Ezra who had only excelled with the training and companionship Kanan had given. Ahsoka knew that Maul was _wrong_ on this one. One way or another, the will of the Force was that Kanan would continue to train Ezra, and his newfound blindness wouldn’t hold him back forever.

Of course, Ahsoka couldn’t reveal any of this to Maul. Or at least, that’s what she assumed. The entire concept of the World Between Worlds was still quite vast and unexplainable, so she wouldn’t take any chances by using it as something to taunt Maul with. Ahsoka lifted her head to look at Maul again with a confident smile. “Trust me, Maul. Ezra and Kanan are _both_ stronger than you would like to think. You’ve just met them; you don’t know how strong they are together.”

Maul shrugged. “That may be so, yes. Perhaps I will have take that into consideration in the future.”

Ahsoka watched Maul in disbelief before shaking her head. “I’m still surprised that you’re still alive. With how much you seem to love taking what you want for yourself, I’m surprised you didn’t get yourself in trouble with Vader and the Empire sooner.”

Maul laughed. “Do you think of me as only a taker, Padawan?” He noticed how much that old title stung Ahsoka but he decided to let it pass. “I did not take control of an entire _system_ by taking. My past alliances were stronger than you know.”

Ahsoka raised an eye marking and decided to humor Maul. “So, what about the alliance you offered to me? What would have _ever_ come of that besides trying your best to kill Sidious? Surely, you didn’t hope to take _Coruscant._ ”

“Why not?” Maul grinned, basking in Ahsoka’s reactions. “You once again reveal your weakness, Lady Tano.” Maul folded his hands behind his back. “It was much more prominent on Mandalore, but I still see it now. You are incapable of bringing yourself to your full potential, because you underestimate yourself. You don’t take risks or ever push the boundaries beyond what you already are comfortable with.”

Ahsoka bit her lip before smirking and coming back with, “But then, Maul, you reveal _yours._ You _over_ estimate your own ability. I think that was pretty obvious during our duel, actually.” Maul seemed very ignorant of that, and Ahsoka fought the urge to roll her eyes like she did as a padawan. “You overswung. You pressed onto me in a saber lock at all the wrong times. At the very end, you got desperate and that’s why I was able to swing you off the edge and have the clones capture you.”

Maul glared. “Well, contrary to you, I only _grow_ from my errors. Consider it as a compliment, Tano. I had not expected to be met with so much power and skill from a Padawan who had never completed her training.”

Ahsoka took a deep breath. “Well, I was taught to always get creative and think outside the box in a situation where I’m outmatched by an opponent.” Ahsoka subtly reached out with the Force to pick up a piece of rubble, looking it over just to give herself something to look at that wasn’t Maul. “Anakin taught me a lot about offensive combat, and fighting with a second lightsaber only complimented that, but Master _Kenobi_ is the one who gave me the necessary defensive training to block against your attacks.” Ahsoka couldn’t help but smirk at the sheer anger that fueled Maul at the mention of Obi-Wan’s name.

“It is only because I no longer see you as a true enemy that I am not killing you,” Maul hissed under his breath.

“And why am I not an enemy?” Ahsoka asked.

“Because, just like you, _I_ was discarded by my former master, and _you_ are not a Jedi.”

“So, is that your defining line?” Ahsoka pressed. “The title of Jedi or Sith is what determines who your enemies are?”

Maul seemed to be trying really hard not to look at Ahsoka now, which was fine with her since she was still staring at the rubble. “My enemies are those who threaten my power.”

Ahsoka allowed herself to laugh. It was halfhearted, and was still traced with some of that post-Vader depression, but it was a laugh all the same. “Well, besides the Sith Temple – which is now _destroyed_ – I’m not sure what other powers you actually possess there, Maul.”

Maul opened his mouth.

“And don’t say ‘the Force’,” Ahsoka added.

Maul closed his mouth. He stood silently for a moment before nodding slowly. “Well then, Lady Tano. It would seem that – once again – you and I are appearing more and more similar.”

Ahsoka hated how he was right. She had hated it on Mandalore, and she hated it now on Malachor. It gave the woman memories of when she had temporarily teamed up with Ventress in the midst of her escape from Coruscant police prior to leaving the Order. Ahsoka had wondered before about what ever happened to Dooku’s former assassin. Perhaps she had lived on to continue being a bounty hunter somewhere, maybe with that one kid with the grudge on Windu – Boba, wasn’t it? Ah yes, Jango’s son. 

“Your thoughts are all over the place,” Maul grumbled, pulling Ahsoka out of her state of nostalgia. Ahsoka mentally cursed herself, and tried to put up better mental shielding. Maul laughed. “Well, it’s been a pleasure catching up, Tano, but I mustn’t tarry here any longer.” The former Sith straightened himself and looked over at the former Jedi. 

Ahsoka looked back confusedly. “What do you mean? You didn’t actually commandeer one of those Inquisitor TIEs, did you?” Ahsoka’s expression quickly changed. “Oh. Of course, you did.”

“I would offer you passage off of this planet,” Maul admitted, a grin covering his features. “But, I believe I have gotten to know you better than that, for better or for worse. I know you will not leave with me, so...” Maul cleared his throat and began to walk. “Farewell, Lady Tano. I would advise finding a way off Malachor eventually, or at least doing a better job at masking your signature. It would be a _shame_ if Vader had to come here again to finish the job.”

Ahsoka merely gave Maul an unchanged glance and slightly nodded to him. As she watched the broken Zabrak walking away, Ahsoka had to ask another question. “You told me about Sidious that day,” she referred back to their duel. “I know that I captured you, but I had figured you’d be more prepared.” Ahsoka raised an eye marking and offered another question. “What about Crimson Dawn? I was almost certain that you were once leading them.”

Maul stopped walking and looked back at Ahsoka with a very uninterested expression. And so, he decided to ignore the question. “I am _leaving_ now,” Maul reminded Ahsoka. “Farewell.”

Ahsoka let out a long sigh and shook her head at Maul. As his figure disappeared in the direction of the TIE, Ahsoka decided to take some more much needed time to meditate on all that had happened. Vader – and hopefully Sidious as well – believed that she was dead, and she would keep it that way. Ahsoka only hoped that Maul wouldn’t stir up _too much_ trouble for Kanan and Ezra to have to deal with without her.


End file.
